The generosity of the owner of The Barnsbury in giving free drinks to veterans on Remembrance Sunday is to be applauded and it was right that your paper report it.

However the editorial decision to reduce its report of the borough’s parade and service to a paragraph at the end of that story was nothing less than disgraceful.

I have attended the last 13 Remembrance Sunday events at Islington Green and this was the biggest I remember. What was particularly impressive was the large number of young people from the borough’s many youth organisations who were there.

One only had to look at the cards on the wreaths which were laid to see the wide spectrum of Islington life represented. The interfaith service was conducted with great dignity by a number of the borough’s religious leaders.

I belong to the generation whose parents, aunts and uncles fought the Second World War or maintained the life of the country back home.

Go back a generation and you will find men who fought in the trenches and women who worked in factories and drove buses.

Since 1945 there has been only one year when a member of the armed services has not died and this year’s grim total has just reached the 100 mark.

It was obvious on Remembrance Sunday that the people of Islington wished to honour the dead, remember the living and hope for a more peaceful world. Your newspaper’s reduction of such a significant event in the borough’s life to less than 50 words was an insult to the memory of the dead, to the service of all those who have served in our armed forces, and to the ordinary people of Islington who came to Islington Green in such large numbers and stood in silence to remember. – Barbara Smith, Mayor of Islington 2007 -2008, Avenell Road, N5.